Pyongyang, June 23 (KCNA) — The second premier soccer matches of the Sports Contest for Pochonbo Torch Prize started here on Monday.
Ten men and women’s football teams will play the matches to take place at the Kim Il Sung Stadium and the Sosan Football Stadium from June 23 to July 6.
Divided into two groups, they will play league matches.
Two best teams from each group will compete with each other and winners will play finals.
Standings of remaining teams will be decided by the results of matches.
Today witnessed men’s football matches between the Pyongyang and Wolmido teams and between the Sonbong and Kigwancha teams at the Kim Il Sung Stadium.
The Pyongyang Team beat the Wolmido Team 3:1 while the Sonbong and Kigwancha teams played a scoreless game.
The matches go on

Pyongyang, June 20 (KCNA) — The FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 is drawing great attention of football fans and televiewers in the DPRK.
But it seems nothing can overpower the shock given to most of them due to the Spanish team’s early exit.
In this regard, Yu Myong Uk, an official of the DPRK Football Association, told KCNA:
Even a strong team may have a bitter experience of defeat.
But, I am very surprised at the Spanish team’s disgraceful defeat, as the Dutch team has been ranked far below the Spanish team in teams list.
It seems to me that Spanish “Tiki-Taka” is going bankrupt.
Pak Chol Nam, a teacher of Pyongyang International Football School, said:
The Spanish team’s defeat gave me a lesson that it is most important to grasp the tactics of rivals and smartly counter them.
I will further study together with my trainees lessons and experiences gained in the on-going World Cup to put the training on a more scientific basis.
Ryang Min Ho, a section chief of the Pyongyang Vegetable Science Institute, said:
I am closely following the result of every match.
The Spanish team’s loss is the most exceptional one for all employees of my institute.
I called my friend in the Cheyuk Sinmun (Sports newspaper) to say my opinion. My friend told me that now many football fans in the country are sending messages or making phone calls to his office to express their feelings or propose creative opinions on developing the football of the nation.

North Korea will send 150 athletes to the 2014 Asian Games, which are being hosted in the South Korean city of Incheon.
Event organizers say the North has submitted its athlete entry list to the Olympic Council of Asia.
The athletes will be competing in 14 sports, including swimming, football and weightlifting.
North Korea won six gold medals to finish 12th overall at the 2010 Asian Games.
This year’s event will run from September 19th to October 4th.

Beijing: DPR Korea became the champions of the 2014 AFC U-14 Girls Regional Championship for the East region after downing Japan 2-1 on Wednesday.
The Koreans, who were the runners-up in the inaugural edition last year, led the game 1-0 at the half before adding one more goal to win the final game.
Ko Kyong-hui, who scored a whopping six goals in their 13-0 routing of Guam in the group stages, scored as early as the 7th minute. Midfielder Miura Haruka however equalised on 22 minutes before the half-time whistle was blown.
Korea regained the lead as Pyon Un-gyong scored their second and winning goal on 42 minutes.
DPR Korea, who lost to China in the final last year, maintained a perfect record of three wins during the group stages before going on to beat Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals.
Photo: CFA

Kuala Lumpur: In order to give opportunity for more Member Associations to be part of Asia’s flagship competition, the AFC Executive Committee on Wednesday decided to approve a proposal to increase the number of teams in the AFC Asian Cup from 16 to 24 from the 2019 edition.
The committee, which met under the chairmanship of AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, also decided to remove AFC Challenge Cup from the list of AFC competitions. The 2014 AFC Challenge Cup, to be played in Maldives from May 19 to 30, will be the last edition of this competition.
At the outset, Shaikh Salman congratulated Japan for winning the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup saying it’s a big achievement and once again proves our dominance in women’s football.
He also wished Japan, Iran, Korea Republic and Australia the very best for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil apart from hoping for success for the forthcoming AFC Women’s Asian Cup, AFC Challenge Cup and AFC Futsal Championship.
The committee also ratified the AFC Competitions Committee’s proposal to merge the preliminary qualification rounds for FIFA World Cup qualifiers and AFC Asian Cup.
Depending on the number of entries, the Member Associations will be divided into eight groups in the preliminary stage. The eight group winners and four second best teams among all the eight groups will qualify for the FIFA World Cup final round of qualifiers and also the AFC Asian Cup finals. Presently, only ten teams battle it out in the final round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The next best 24 teams from the preliminary qualification round (24 teams) will compete for the remaining slots in the AFC Asian Cup finals in six groups of four teams each. The final round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers and AFC Asian Cup qualifiers will be separated.
The committee also approved the proposal to rank the Member Associations based on their national teams and clubs’ performance over last four years in AFC competitions. Thirty per cent of points will be allocated for national teams’ performances while seventy per cent for the clubs’ showings.
Upon confirmation of the rankings, the MAs ranked 1 to 24 will be eligible to play in the AFC Champions League. Apart from being in the top 24, the MAs should fulfill club licensing criteria, have integrity programmes within the MA, organisation of professional league and its governance, facilities as required in the regulations and sound supporting system for logistical matters in order to be eligible to receive a direct slot(s).
The MAs ranked 25 to 32 will be eligible to participate in AFC Cup group stage while MAs ranked 33 to 47 will be provided with an opportunity to play in AFC Cup playoff stage.
The proposal to increase rest days from one to two in the qualifiers and finals of the AFC U-16, U-19 and U-22 championships was also approved but this will be implemented from 2017 onwards.
The AFC Executive Committee also approved recommendations from AFC’s standing committees, the new AFC Champions League and AFC Cup formats and the proposed amendments to the AFC Statutes, which will be presented to the AFC Extraordinary Congress in Sao Paulo on June 9 for approval.